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smk4565

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Everything posted by smk4565

  1. smk4565
    I'd like to say thank you for running the site. I think this is the best auto discussion forum on the internet. I like Autoblog and Worldcarfans for news, but the comments sections on some of those sites are weak. This site is much more well rounded and covers topics on every brand too, and the auto show coverage and sales ticker numbers are always good. I visit this site multiple times daily, I enjoy discussion, I don't mind some cheerleading, it shows passion for your favorite brand, but we don't need any attacking or trolling.
  2. smk4565
    These marketing departments need to do a better job promoting sedans, or manufacturers need to make sedans more compelling. I think crossovers in general are growing because all wheel drive and cargo space are 2 of the most desired product attributes among car buyers. You can't get all wheel drive in a Mazda 6, Camry, Accord or Malibu, but you can in an Escape, CR-V or RAV-4. I think the idea of a $90k Cadillac sedan isn't crazy, but I think the CT6 as a product falls short of that price point. $75k for a Continental is insane. It is a front drive platform with all wheel drive and a 6-speed, even with the Ecoboost V6, it has power but not the chassis to back it up. I think the CT6 and Continental will both fall flat in the market place because the German sedans will eat them up.
  3. smk4565
    Makes sense, you see how many Denali GMC's there are. Jeep could do a lot of Overland trims, just like Ford sold a boat load of those Eddie Bauer Explorers in the 90s.
  4. smk4565
    I think it is good that it looks more like a pickup, the old Ridgeline looked awkward and not really a truck not really an SUV. It should be a pretty strong competitor to the other mid-size pick ups, the Honda 3.5 V6 is smooth and reliable, it should have a car-like ride. It isn't my sort of vehicle, but I think it will be more successful than the last Ridgeline.
  5. smk4565
    Congrats to Lincoln on the breakthrough of perforated seats and 6-speed automatics. The luxury world has been put on notice.
  6. smk4565
    First: That would be the Santa Fe Sport. The regular Santa Fe comes with a 3.3L V6. Second: The two vehicles you listed are somewhat smaller than the Acadia I did think that the Cherokee was smaller, but perhaps more in line with Acadia than Grand Cherokee.. Perhaps a better comparison is the Toyota Highlander which has a 185 hp 4-cylinder as standard.
  7. smk4565
    The 8-speed would have helped. If you have 8 gears you can get away with a less powerful engine. The Jeep Cherokee has a 184 hp 2.4 liter four, the Hyundai Santa Fe a 190 hp 2.4 liter four. I don't think the 190 hp four in the Acadia is much different than what others are offering. And they do offer a V6 if you want that. Most crossover buyers aren't looking for 300 hp and high performance. If they wanted 0-60 time and nimble handling they wouldn't be buying a mid-size crossover, they'd get a 3-series. These crossover/SUV buyers will look for cargo space and fuel economy, and not care if the 0-60 time is 9 seconds.
  8. smk4565
    The south american trailblazer is based on the Colorado and it's no featherweight. The Acadia is FWD/AWD on the heavily modified Lambda platform, I'm not sure GM's new coding for it. It's on a new platform called C1XX. No real sharing with Lambda to speak of. Shared with the new XT5. Here are my shots of the GMC Acadia from the show. To me, this is the biggest evidence that the Terrain will shrink significantly next refresh. In 5-passenger trim, the Acadia is dangerously close to the Terrain in interior room with almost all of the extra space happening behind the 2nd row. seems like the wheelbase and length are Dodge Journey sized more than anything. If the width of the vehicle is comparable to the Journey, then in fact yes, it's going down towards Terrain sized. In another thread somewhere, I suggested what GM was probably doing was something along the lines of the last XL-7......something more akin to a stretched equinox. Dimensions maybe not far off that? (i have yet to see the width of the 17 Acadia). GM's not going to lower the price, but it will move a whole size class down. This does not seem like a recipe for success. Time will tell. I just remember when the Lambdas came out. Everyone loved the package. People traded in their Blazers and Envoys and Raniers and stuff en masse. People like my wife's boss when they get kids go to buy the first CUV and gush over the new Acadia they get because adults can sit in the third row. Wanted the GMC because they didn't want the Chevy and they wanted something trucky. Now GM is taking that away. Take away the size, the style, etc. Makes no sense. A 2017 with a 3.6 may end up getting 1 mpg more on the EPA. In the real world, you may or may not see that either. Ask an owner of a 2008 Saturn Vue V6 if they get any better mpg than someone driving a 2008 Acadia. Yeah, it's not going to get hardly nay better real world mpg. Of course I am of the mindset that the Terrain and Equinox shouldn't downsize (their interior space). Escape is a nice garagable size but some may find it a bit small. CRv has nice space but the whole package their is a tin rattle trap. GM can take the weight out of their products without making them into CRv's. I get that the product groups are global now, but GM is seriously cutting themselves in the foot on this one. I guess its time to pick up a Dodge Journey. you driven anything with the 2.5? There's a reason its being banished to the trucks and CUV's....... The 2.5 is good enough for the Cadillac ATS, must be good enough for a GMC truck. I drove a Malibu rental with a 2.5 once. I guess it was fine in that, I wouldn't want one though. They had to put some kind of 4 cylinder in it. I guess they could have used a turbo 4 but maybe thought it would raise cost and get worse fuel economy, or require more maintenance.
  9. smk4565
    The guy that likes 3-different sizes of sausage thinks the Continental is boring....... Lincoln must be doing something right. Well when you have the best looking full size sedan on the market, the classiest looking small luxury sedan on the market, might as well make the middle sedan look similar. Mercedes has interesting looking interiors again. From 2010 to 2014 they got boring, the interiors are fantastic again. They have a sort of bland looking car on top of a stretched Fusion platform. I am also not that excited because I know they'll price it higher than they should, and it won't sell, and this car will be forgotten about, unless they can push a bunch to the Hertz Gold lots in 3-4 years.
  10. smk4565
    Yawn, it looks pretty boring inside and out. I don't find much interesting about it. They better use aggressive pricing, or it will just disappear in the marketplace.
  11. smk4565
    Everything is going to have a 4-cylinder. If you want to complain you could complain that it is not turbocharged. But I think the 2.5 liter four is the right base engine. I'd guess they want to lower the price a bit and set up shop in the mid-size segment. I think Terrain will shrink to Escape size. And this makes sense. People are used to a Terrain costing X and an Acadia costing Y. When you slide them down the Acadia costing X seems like great value. The opposite of adding $10k to the CTS and being surprised that buyers went away.
  12. smk4565
    Looks a lot like an Explorer from the front and side, the tail lights remind me of Durango and Grand Cherokee. Overall it looks good, and GM needs a true mid size SUV and this is it. I'd imagine the Terrain/Equinox is shrinking also. Buick will have the Enclave as the full size. It cuts down overlap which I think is good. Plus Cadillac is getting more crossovers and you want to drive the money toward the higher margin Caddies if possible.
  13. smk4565
    Not making Alpha RHD compatible when they wanted to make Cadillac a global brand makes no sense from the start. However, they make a Camaro, they make an ATS. It wouldn't take that much to make a Buick coupe on the same chassis, same wheel base as Camaro, same 3.6 V6 and transmission as Camaro. You put a new body on it, put the LaCrosse dashboard in it, soften the suspension from the Camaro and you are done. GM knows badge engineering better than anyone else. They could have this car on sale in 2 years if they wanted to. As far as Cadillac goes, the CT6 is coming out this year, they could have made it a bolder, more luxurious car, but they played it safe. They could have co-developed a coupe to launch with it, but they didn't. Adding a body style to an existing vehicle isn't that hard. And GM has proved they can do it, the Camaro and Corvette convertibles were on sale within months of the coupe.
  14. smk4565
    Minivans are not a growth segment, but they did sell 93,000 Town and Countrys last year at a base price of $30k. I think they could move 100,000+ Pacificas a year and if the base is $30k, most will probably sell for $35-40K. I don't think 100k units a year is anything to sneeze at for a mid $30s priced vehicle. As far as the EV range, it is 30 miles more than any other mini van, Explorer, Traverse, Enclave, or Acadia offers.
  15. smk4565
    It looks pretty similar to the Infiniti Q60. Buick has said there are no plans to build it as of yet. I don't get why they drag their feet on stuff like this, Avenir, El Mirag, Ciel, etc. Take a chance and build a halo car. Not everything has to be a crossover on a platform shared with 4 other products.
  16. smk4565
    It does have a 10-speed automatic for your gear shifting pleasure.
  17. smk4565
    Not many CUVs seat 7 or 8 people. Not many plug-in CUVs that get 80 mpg either. 30 miles of electric range is pretty good too. If cargo and people hauling is your top priority this Pacifica makes a lot of winning points.
  18. smk4565
    Well this search just ended with a 302 hp V8 all wheel drive wagon for under $10k. http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?zip=07088&endYear=2017&vehicleStyleCodes=SUVCROSS%2CWAGON&showcaseOwnerId=0&startYear=1981&makeCode1=MB&firstRecord=25&searchRadius=100&maxPrice=10000&showcaseListingId=0&mmt=%5BMB%5B%5D%5B%5D%5D&listingId=403081721&Log=0
  19. smk4565
    I like it, I think it looks good, about as sleek and sporty as you can make a minivan look, and still looks pretty refined. I like the Pacifica name change, it is a CUV name applied to a minivan, "Town and Country" was a tired name, Pacifica sounds like a crossover name, so buyers will like that. I liked the original Pacificas they had good space in them and weren't a van, not a truck, the idea was good, maybe not the best quality or exception of it. A Hybrid van is a good idea, that will be a segment exclusive. Should give them a big edge over the competition.
  20. smk4565
    I like the S-class look a lot, the C-class the past generations always stole S-class cues. I wish this E-class looked a little different. I like how the new E-class looks, I like it more than the current generation (especially post refresh), but some variety within the brand would have been nice. Even if they just split the headlights or made the tail lights E shaped or something. Not surprised that it is a 2.0T as the base engine, the rest of the segment already does that. XF, 5-series, CTS, GS, A6 are all 4 cylinder. I do wish they got another 15-20 hp out of that engine. I don't get how they get 370 hp from a 2 liter in a CLA45 and 241 here. I wonder if the inline six will be the second engine. If it was the current V6, why not say that now. Unless they want to launch the inline six in the fall and put it in the C-class, and GLC all at the same time. The Drive Pilot thing sounds awesome.
  21. smk4565
    It's an ugly looking car. Lexus has no real high power engines, the 467 hp V8 is their most powerful engine, and is not so high on torque either. Agreed though, that at least you give them credit for building a bold design, low volume car. What is odd though is this car is 187 inches long, so it is closer in size to a C-class coupe, no where near as big as an S-class coupe, which was their supposed target.
  22. smk4565
    If BMW only made enthusiast sports cars they'd be like Lotus. You have to build products that appeal to the masses and BMW still has M models and track packages and CSI lightweight models and things for enthusiasts. If we are counting Buick and Cadillac together you'd have to add Mini to BMW. A lot of those Minis cost more than a Verano or Encore. I wouldn't call Mini or Buick a luxury brand though. And yes Cadillac should use word names. At least for sedans, crossover buyers seem to like alphabet soup.
  23. smk4565
    They should build it for sure. We need coupes and interesting cars on the market, everything is becoming a Camry, Accord or crossover and that is boring. The key for the production model is pricing. If it is too expensive they won't get any volume, and you can't really price it above an ATS. Plus I think you want a car like this to steal sales from Lexus ES, Avalon, Acura TSX, etc. And those are all sedans but I bet a lot of buyers of those cars never use the back seat anyway.
  24. smk4565
    I agree most of these coupes look similar because there is one best way to design them. This concept does have the body shape similar to the DB9 and Jaguar XK which is what you want. I like the body shape of the car, the headlights and tail lights just don't look like a Buick. Where is the waterfall grill?
  25. smk4565
    I love the idea of a grand touring coupe. I don't like the Hyundai Genesis Coupe ripoff taillights or the Infiniti front end. The grille looks like it came off a Ford, the front is similar to the Mustang. It is a decent looking car, but to me it doesn't look very American or Buick-like. If all the badges were off it, I would think it was Japanese. I do hope they put it in production though, it reminds me a bit of the Chrysler Firepower concept that they never made.
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